''Sweet communion of a kiss'': Buen Camino (Chronotope) and the sublime

credits: Chronotope

A burning spice explosion at first.

The immortelle, the most stunning I've ever smelt, capturing its renown honey tobacco facets, evolves with time , but reveals to be the main companion of the scent.
As it settles and the spiciness becomes of secondary importance,
a beautiful balsamic sweetness comes out.


Buen Camino is often described as a lavender perfume,
but as a lavender purist, my nose does struggle to be so sophisticated to grant it such simplification. 
Its lavender has been dissected , ripped off its buds with only the stems being granted the final infusion.
Or, if the buds have to be considered, they're the dry lavender bouquet you have somewhere around your house since forever.
Its lavender is limited to the aroma captured through the camphorous facets left on the palms after scrolling in a lavender field.

Coffee is likely to be blameable for this lavender murder, but I don't find it a minus.
Instead, it actually works: the immortelle, the spices (anise? pepper berries? cinnamon? saffron? I can only speculate here), the lavender, they all gather under what Carter accomplishes by emotionally and almost photo-realistically evoking the smell of a spiritual pilgrimage, collecting the aromas along his journey to Santiago de Compostela.

Witches' Sabbath by Francisco Goya, 1789; credits: Wikipedia

Buen Camino undoubtedly is influenced by Christian, and more specifically Roman Catholic olfactory heritage.

I here reprise Jane Daly of Daly Beauty and fully subscribe to her understanding in calling the scent ''holy''.
For someone who grew up in the Italian catholic mania and lived in-between of different familiar religious backgrounds à-laFanny & Alexander,
Buen Camino for me brings to memory the mauve candies my Catholic grandmother regularly purchased from Camaldoli monks that my aunt fought every time to make my cousins spit in disdain for the matriarch supporting the tax-avoiding institution.

Buen Camino is oileous,
aggressively balsamic,
graciously smoky and infectiously herbaceous.

It is among the best (and very few) fragrant analysis of religious olfactory heritage, inter-personal spiritual experiences, and scent memory.
In its fragility and sincerity, it makes all the fragrances marketed as 'church-inspired incense' etc. appear as mere gross exploitation and marketing-orientied vile simplication.

Music: anything by Judee Sill,
Nick Drake, 
Fanfare for naran ratan by naran ratan,
How Big How Blue How Beautiful by Florence + The Machine